Monday the 17th of March 2025

'Art' on the Bradenton river walk

Today was another very windy day and somewhat cooler than we have experienced up until now. Once out of the wind it was warm and sunny. We were not playing golf so we decided to go and look at Bradenton riverwalk which we had been led to believe had children's play areas and cafes along the Manatee river bank. However when we got there it wasn't as interesting as we had expected as there had been a lot of storm damage which as yet hadn't been repaired. 










Having had a good 'blow' from the wind we went on to the De Soto national memorial which again had had some damage from the October storms. It was set up to commemorate the landing of the spaniard De Soto and his 100 soldiers in the 1500s, who had sailed from Spain to invade Florida. They were met by red indians who fought with their bows and arrows against the spaniards who had armour and guns, but still the red indians were more successful with their bows and arrows darting around the undergrowth. We did a mile walk which included seeing the obelisk and tall cross which have been erected in memory of De Soto and catholic priests who were there to convert the indians to christianity. We drove back on to the island which took quite a while as there was heavy traffic going on to the island which we couldn't understand the reason for.



A replica of the spaniards accommodation

A Red Indian with his fish



















Spanish conquistadors


A  gecko (specially for Lydia)



















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